This is an open thread, but I’ll talk for a minute about the Sunday debate for the Georgia senate race.
I watched Friday’s debate between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, and then today I watched the 3-way Sunday debate between Rev. Warnock, the libertarian spoiler, and an empty podium.
You can watch the Sunday debate here.
I have to say, Rev. Warnock does a much better job debating Walker when he’s not there! Warnock came out swinging, and I was there for it. The asshole libertarian, of course, is telling people to vote for him so it sends the race to a run-off. Because something-something somehow that will be good for Georgia. Really hoping Warnock can win outright!
The two candidates who showed up could sometimes choose to ask a question of the other candidate who was there OR they could choose to put the question to the guy at the empty podium. The funniest thing is that they were also allowed follow-up questions or rebuttal time, so after they posed their question to Walker they got to also rebut what they thought Walker would have said if he had been there!
Open thread.
Update: I hear in the comments that there are some debates tonight:
Ryan vs. Vance
https://www.wfmj.com/live-stream
JPL
Warnock wasn’t prepared to debate lies.
J R in WV
OK, this is a really funny post, thanks WG! Can’t wait to see the commtariat opinions on this…
Jackie
Utah’s senator debate between Mike Lee and Evan McMullin is tonight. Also, Georgia’s governor’s debate between Kemp and Stacey Abrams. AND 2nd senatorial debate between JD Vance and Tim Ryan. Lots to try watching this evening!
Plus, hoping to see the Cleveland Guardians shove the Yankees out of the Playoffs.
JPL
GPB TV has the GA debate, and Stacy is holding her own. She’s good at this.
Baud
@JPL:
👍
WaterGirl
@JPL: That’s kind of what I thought on Friday night! It reminded me a little bit of Obama when he seemed not to know what to do with all of Romney’s just-outright-blatant-lies in their first debate.
Rev. Warnock seemed way more comfortable in the Sunday setting. He seemed more in “speaking” mode than “debating” mode.
Abnormal Hiker
Some of the Wordle fans have complained about NYT changing the game. It appears that they have expanded the list of potential solutions. Wordlebot provides an analysis everyday. Recently plurals of 4-letter words have showed up as possible solutions. But today there is a really interesting addition: PWNED is now a potential wordle solution.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: I found links for the first two, but i can’t find a link for tonight’s debate between Ryan and Vance. Anyone have a link?
sanjeevs
CEO of Anti-Woke Bank Startup GloriFi Resigns – WSJ
Very sad news for Peter Thiel, Ken Griffin and Candace Owens.
WaterGirl
It’s kind of like we are in a funhouse mirror version of reality these days, except with emphasis on “not fun”.
While I was looking for links to tonight’s debates, I came across this story:
Mike Lee slams Utah newspaper for publishing endorsement seemingly written by himself
So I guess now the story is that Mike Lee wasn’t really trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes; he was just kindly providing a special version of his bio to the newspaper. He never intended it to be published as an op-ed. Pinky swear!
Ohio Mom
@Abnormal Hiker: What? I have not seen any plurals and the Wordle I solved for earlier today is a large beer mug (sorry for the spoiler).
Do they have a different Wordle for non-NYT subscribers?
WaterGirl
@Abnormal Hiker:
Something to keep in mind if you know there’s a “S” in the word.
JPL
@Baud: This was one question
Abrams, asked why her issues are popular, but she is not polling ahead, says, “I’m on the right side of history and the right side of the issues.” Adds later that she doesn’t buy the polls that show her trailing. “I do not believe that I’m behind.” #gapol
IMO She needs to make the campaign less about her and more about Georgians, especially females. Although cute, one ad shows her answering math questions, and talking about how that will help her solve state problems.
BlueGuitarist
Ryan v asskisser debate maybe at
https://www.wfmj.com/live-stream
WaterGirl
@sanjeevs:
I would love to see the “A-list of financial backers”. Let’s see what some of these groups are made of.
JPL
Maybe I missed it, but Stacey needs to point out that Kemp is handing out Biden money and claiming it as his own.
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Thank you! I have added that up top. Hoping for a youtube link so I can embed, but a link is 100x better than nothing. :-)
Ohio Mom
@WaterGirl: That list also needs the amount the big names each put up. I can imagine the A-listers would tend to throw in a token amount (to them, maybe the amount wouldn’t be trivial to us) because they would figure what they were really contributing was their name and the implied endorsement.
Mike in NC
@sanjeevs: Oh, yeah. People complain all the time about those big “liberal” banks. Idiots. Imagine working in the home of a mean drunk.
JPL
@JPL: She actually did rebut his surplus and saying it was federal money.
Baud
@JPL:
👍
ARoomWithAMoose
Open thread, so a complaint about Dem media in Florida
Like pretty much everyone else now, at home I stream shows, no commercials, or at least nothing local. The only place I have seen any political TV ads (or broadcast tv at all) is at some of of the bars I’ve gone to with a group for watching sportsball. The ads were all pretty much viewed with the volume off or drowned out by the crowd noises. Do none of the media people watch their own ads with the volume off? The Crists ads I saw completely failed to use any of the hours of video of DeSantis looking hideous, grumpy, and uncomfortable in his human suit, (like a football coach towards the end of a losing a game) especially at his staged events with school kids.
kalakal
On a twist on debating an empty podium
Liz Truss didn’t bother to show up for Prime Ministers questions today, she sent her arch rival Penny Mordaunt instead. Mordaunt gave the excuse Truss was away on ‘urgent business’ and then in response to laughter and a mocking question gave this reply
https://twitter.com/PoliticsJOE_UK/status/1582026947340734467?s=20&t=pBKWsFacD8pQInwtT0tpIw
Truss then showed up half way through Mordaunt doing her stand in routine, sat down without saying a word and then sat there looking like a robot on recharge cycle while her new chancellor destroyed her entire, 1 week old, economic strategy
https://twitter.com/oliverjamesking/status/1582034684892315648?s=20&t=eOUfPuut_pe2XWx27aYpYA
Then she stood up and rushed out.
I have never seen anything like it. She’s lost all power within a matter of weeks, I’d put her on suicide watch if I were there
Ohio Mom
@BlueGuitarist: Sorry I took a look at the Ryan-Vance debate. Vance is a vicious slime ball. That has to give him a leg up.
Plus these debates are dumb. What is the point of discussing state-level issues — when I tuned in they were talking about Ohio allowing teachers to be armed. That’s not something a Senator can do anything about.
Steeplejack
@Ohio Mom:
There is a discussion forum about Wordle (which I can’t find now); that’s where pwned was mentioned. It hasn’t appeared as an answer yet.
Geminid
In 2020, Libertarian Shane Hazel spoiled Senator David Perdue’s reelection chances. Perdue beat John Ossoff in November, but Hazel’s 185,000 votes kept him from reaching 50% and forced a runoff.
Georgia is one of the Libertarians’ strongest states, but they are a factor in only the closest races.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Heh I guessed today’s wordle in 2 guesses!
JPL
OMG Kemp is so smarmy that I walked away. I did not see questions on culture issues about women’s rights, but Stacey did allude to them. Whether IVF, contraception or right to choose, Kemp’s positions are extreme.
Betty
@Ohio Mom: As a fellow non-subcriber, I can confirm that the word on my version was the same as yours.
SpaceUnit
I’m kinda surprised Raphael Warnock had time to prepare for the debate considering that he seems to spend most of every day sending me emails.
I love the guy but damn.
Cmorenc
The media dynamic whereby a candidate like walker goes in with expectations his performance expectation will be a toxic waste site and their actual performance iis merely household garbage landfill level – and they somehow portray that candidate’s performance a win or draw merely bc they can spew more garbage in five minutes than a wise, knowledgeable opponent can answer in five hours – is infuriating. And the wise, knowledgeable one is judged a disappointment because the format and time allowances make it impossible for them to decontaminate all the garbage spewed by their opponent. Warnock v walker in a nutshell.
WaterGirl
@kalakal: Boy, that first link was brutal!
Ohio Mom
@Steeplejack: Okay, I’m a little less confused now. My opinion doesn’t count but I would be against PWNED, which I would argue isn’t a word, it’s a (slangy) abbreviation. And the name of the game is Wordle, not Abbreviationadle.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Got it in three, which is pretty good for me. According to my stats, I’ve only ever gotten 12 in two.
WaterGirl
@Ohio Mom: @JPL:
Smarmy is the exact word I used for why I had to turn off the debate for Wisconsin governor on Friday. Oh my god, between his punchable face and the smug arrogance of his tone of voice I wanted to punch him out.
JPL
This was a good line from Stacey
Abrams says, “We can protect the 2nd amendment and 2nd graders at the same time.”
Dan B
@kalakal: Amazing videos of supposedly bright people being idiots, or would ‘fools’ be more on the money?
WaterGirl
@kalakal: You must feel like you are in a special ring of hell… between living here and your ties overseas… a clusterfuck in both places.
Ohio Mom
@Cmorenc: Also describes the little I saw of Ryan-Vance.
I don’t remember, were debates better in the old days, when the League of Women Voters ran them? These one minute answers end up being very misleading.
Steeplejack
@Ohio Mom:
Yeah, I would vote against pwned, although I like it and use it occasionally (in context). I don’t have a problem with plurals; they’re legit.
Geminid
The Kemp/Abrams debate made the 8pm ABC radio news. They played a soundbite from each candidate, on Medicaid expansion. I know I am biased but I thought Kemp’s statement was weak and Abrams’ strong. She talked about all the money Georgia was sending to states like Kentucky and Louisiana because Kemp was passing it up.
Plenty of other states get the money too, but I think Abrams was appealing to Georgians’ pride. They like to think their state is more advanced than other southern states, and may feel chafed by these relative backwaters getting over on them.
kalakal
@WaterGirl: That about sums it up.
They have their faults but I love both the US and the UK dearly and to see the same type of rancid clown causing so much damage, pain and misery to both countries tears at me. I used to think I hated Thatcher & Reagan. I now realise that was merely mild dislike compared to my feelings for the current crop of fascist spivs on both sides of the Atlantic
persistentillusion
@SpaceUnit: Try J. Fetterman. Eight to ten a day. I stay subscribed because his communications team is top notch and I might learn something. Yeah, November 9th can’t come soon enough (yes, I know all of them will try to continue to f/r after that day, but I won’t care quite so much).
persistentillusion
@Dan B: My dog used to bring in mostly dead animals he’d trapped in the back yard. He meant well and was a good dog other than that. One vole in his mouth did a really good impression of Liz Truss or maybe the other way around.
Abnormal Hiker
@Ohio Mom: They have not yet appeared as answers but they are now possible answers according to the Wordlebot analysis on the NYT site
SpaceUnit
@persistentillusion:
I realize it’s just how the game is played, but it strikes me as excessive. And at some point I suspect it becomes counterproductive.
kalakal
@Dan B: Many of them are knaves and/or fools. Even the smart ones have come to believe their own lies which has never ended well. In that video I think Truss was experiencing her Macbeth “no man of woman born…” moment as some truth broke through.
Which explains her NPC with an incomplete script impression
Timill
@Abnormal Hiker: PWNED and NAMES are both valid in NYT Wordle – I tried them on a spare machine.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: 2 is rare for me too! I checked my Wordle stats and I have guessed only 19 words in two tries.